Photos: Juan Durán Sierralta and Mathias Jacobs
Yellow House By Alejandro Soffia
Chile’s dense forests and unique ecosystem create a number of challenges for local architects, including the need for small, space-saving homes that can exist synonymously with their surroundings. Architect Alejandro Soffia has spent most of his career designing spaces that adhere to this concept — and during his journey, the introspective Yellow House was conceived.
Soffia’s Yellow House brings to light two separate states of mind — one focusing on the ability for a home to coexist within a locale without deteriorating the surrounding ecosystem, and the other, the delegation of a home’s purpose and structure to that of a prefabricated system, without an obvious connection to predetermined style. To achieve his ambitious dream, Soffia created a dwelling that would integrate short and long production cycles with a simplistic, repeatable design, allowing for conscious living that could easily be replicated elsewhere. A large slab panel, modular walls, and programmatic living areas with an Eames lounge chair and ottoman adorn the interior of the home — a space dressed in warm, raw wood and dark stain. In each room, strategically placed furniture provides an inviting atmosphere for denizens, while high-reaching windows offer expansive views of the surrounding forest. Outside, a beautifully oriented corrugated steel adorns the face of the home — finished in a striking coat of yellow.
